The invention concerns a system for transferring a fluid product, liquefied natural/gas (LNG) for example, between two ships on the open sea, of which the first may be a producer ship, such as an LNG-P (acronym for “Liquefied Natural Gas—Producer”), also termed LNG-FPSO (acronym for “Liquefied Natural Gas—Floating Production, Storage and Offloading”), a re-liquefaction ship (FSRU), a GBS (Gravity Base Structure, that is to say having a weighted base) or a platform, and the second adapted to receive the gas or any other fluid product for its transport, such as a tanker or an LNG-C (acronym for “Liquefied Natural Gas—Carrier”).
Various systems for offshore transfer between two ships linked in tandem exist, and may be classified into three categories, which are:                systems with hinged rigid piping, such as those described in the patent applications WO2004094296, WO0066484, WO0316128, and WO01004041;        systems with concentric double piping, such as that described for example in the patent application WO9950173 and in the document OTC 14099 “tandem mooring LNG offloading system”, by L. Poldervaart, J. P. Queau and Wim Van Wyngaarden and presented at the “Offshore Technology Conference” in Houston, Tex., USA (6-9 May 2002); and        systems using flexible piping (cryogenic hoses), such as those described in patent application WO03037704 or in the document OTC 14096 entitled “A new solution for tandem offloading of LNG”, by Jurgen Eide, Svein I. Eide, Arild Samuelsen, Svein A. Lotceit and Vidar Hanesland and presented at the “Offshore Technology Conference” in Houston, Tex., USA (6-9 May 2002).        